


A pool so cool and deep (that if I sink, I sink...)

by ThatwasJustaDream



Series: Pool So Deep Series [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: BDSM, Bondage and Discipline, Community: 1_million_words, Dom/sub, M/M, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Paddling, Prostate Massage, Sex Toys, danny in charge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 23:32:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU story in which a scarred Steve has specific needs, and can't find anyone he trusts to fulfill them. Then he meets Danny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lost

“You _are_ a great-big pushy bottom, aren’t you? At least you’re flippin’ hot. Almost makes up for what I won’t get to do to you.”

“Sorry,” He shrugged, double-checking the locks on the hotel room door and tugging off his t-shirt, folding it before setting it on the desk chair. “But I was very clear about….”

“In a hurry?” Ethan, almost certainly not his real name, nodded curtly toward where he was already reaching for his zipper, and he stopped, shook his head. “Good. Keep it buttoned ‘til I say. Come here.”

He did, watching Ethan rummage through the duffel bag of toys searching for something mutually agreeable.

Ethan was a boatload better looking than hoped for on short notice, not that it really mattered; bright green eyes, sunlit-blond hair, maybe forty-five but taut, strong. He built and sold luxury yachts – small company, big profits. 

“Why d’you care?” Ethan asked with a grin, and he could only shrug. He couldn’t verbalize that it was always more intense when he knew something about the person who was working him over.

“So I’m clear, a blindfold is okay by you but no ties, cuffs, paddles or crops? I mostly just get to use you rough, right? Is some humiliation okay? Verbal and physical?”

“Yeah,” He bit his own lip, felt himself blushing at the way the word came out; heavy, anticipation in it. Ethan heard it, too and smiled again.

“Perfect. Oh, how about these?” he caught the plastic bag full of half-sized clothespins Ethan tossed to him– plastic, a slick, dark green color and white ones. The springs on them felt… not loose. Not at all. An electric shot ran through his gut and straight through his balls at the thought of them pulling up his skin.

“I don’t know…” 

“C’mon. I’ll make some pretty zippers all over that chest, along the inside of your thighs and low on your ass. _Fuck_ me, but that’d be so gorgeous on you.”

“Okay.” Anticipation turned into a steady tingle, the shift in his breathing starting. “But if I say…”

“I know: Green, yellow, red. You won’t say red. I swear,” Ethan stepped in and ran his hands over him, reaching in to mouth at his neck and shit, that alone felt so good; lips, tongue, teeth on his skin. He’d gone too long…

“Yes, sir.” 

“You can ‘yes, sir’ me all you like,” Ethan murmured in his ear. “I’m also a fan of ‘no,’ ‘stop’ and ‘please, don’t.’ Strip now, okay? Kneel on the center of the bed, hands behind your back. Gonna make this so good for you, Steven. I promise I’ll send you somewhere.”

“Fuck, yeah. Thank you, sir.”

~~~**~~~

Ethan hadn’t lied. He was very skilled, and after some initial trouble sinking into a submissive place, Steve finally gave in. He’d forgotten how it felt, being lost in sensations he had no control over, being used like a breathing fuck toy for someone else’s pleasure.

It had seemed like hours- in the good way some things can feel like hours. He even managed to find the strange state he hadn’t reached in … forever, where his head felt light and dizzy and everything got so quiet. Then he remembered the long, low animal sounds he’d been making by the time Ethan fucked him, and he felt embarrassment color his face as he lay on the bed catching his breath, the blindfold still on. 

“You didn’t need that much. Did you?” Ethan tugged it off for him, and flicked away a couple of stray clips he'd been laying on. “Poor thing. Hope I helped…”

They’d showered up separately, and by the time Steve got out of the bathroom Ethan was dressed and packing his duffel. 

“Can I give you some unsolicited advice?”

“Sure,” Steve started searching up his clothes. “Why not.”

“I think you want to go much deeper with this than you ever will with a stranger. Do yourself a favor, okay? Get a regular dom, someone you can trust. It’ll do you a world of good – and you’ll be safer. You’re not naïve. You know it’s risky, strangers in bars.”

“Thanks,” Steve nodded, tugging on his pants. “I know. I may try. I … haven’t been home much lately, except for quick visits.”

“Moving back here?”

“Sort of. I just … suffered a loss. My dad.”

“Aw hell, sorry to hear that. Really I am.” Ethan looked it. “Wish I were here more than a few weeks at a time; I’m already jealous of the lucky bastard who’ll land you. Be safe, okay?”

“I will,” Steve watched him go, and shook his head as the door shut. Someone he could trust? Sure. If he hadn’t found him yet…. 

He was in the rental car minutes later, his mind and body calmer, clearer, knowing where he needed to go next: dad’s house. His house.

There was something there, had to be; a clue that would help make sense of things. He would dig through the whole place – attic to basement and the garage- ‘til he found it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story written as part of the June Bingo on the 1_million_words comm. Thanks to [Heffermonkey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/heffermonkey/pseuds/heffermonkey) for organizing it and for the awesome banner.


	2. I know...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny's struggles in the desert, and his realization he's not the only one who has wrestled with something.

Some people live in a magical realm called ‘right place, right time.’ Yeah, they have ups and downs but they seem to have a natural instinct for getting theirs. Whenever Danny Williams met one of them he had to fight the urge to rub their head for luck. 

A whole lot of his life had been spent starving in deserts.

Vast, arid space number one: Growing up pre-internet; paper bags over the porn magazines on the store shelves, lots of talk about sex but zero deep discussions about preferences or kinks. He would sit in study hall, eyes on a book, his brain reeling off pictures of pretty girls and boys over his knee with their asses in the air, bound and breathless and begging for his hand, his belt across their skin. 

He’d been a little concerned maybe something wasn’t right with him. 

The ‘90s were a revelation. He found lovers who wanted it that way. And he learned that the same skills pushing him into becoming a detective helped him read his partners, anticipate their needs; mindfuck, pain/pleasure, control. Going from fantasy to reality was… crazy, toe-curling good.

Then came desert number two: Falling in love with a hothouse flower. He’d wanted Rachel enough to subsist on vanilla sex forever if he needed to, gladly. When it turned out that wouldn’t be necessary he dove back in to his new passion; researched it, started to identify as dominant, learned to enjoy single life and his desires without guilt. 

It only made his third stranding in the wilds even more painful.

_“I hate him. I hate him so much…”_

He’d meant it that first day. He despised Steve for the humiliating power play in the garage, for being hyper self-assured. 

_"Get your finger... get your finger out of my face!"_

Danny hadn’t just decked him for getting him shot or twisting his arm until he was doubled over. He’d punched him because of the way he came off – like Steve would always get his, with zero regard for the structural integrity of others. 

Eventually he cooled down enough to see the man who was, apparently, kind of listening. Sometimes. The one who would grin softly at Danny, almost shyly, eyes dancing like Danny was an absurd puzzle he wanted to take apart and put together over and over.

The first time Steve walked in the room and Danny felt a familiar ache in his gut and his balls he knew he was screwed. Back in high school again. Well, okay, mentally. Physically he was in his office, staring at a computer screen instead of a textbook, brain full of Steve tied up and tripping out hard underneath him-- eyes glassy, so gone.

_“What’s the matter, Danno?” Steve had handed him the bag full of lunch he’d just gone to pick up, turning to head for his own office._

_“Nothing, just… figuring something out here.”_

He pushed the thoughts away repeatedly, until the afternoon he turned suddenly at a crime scene to ask him a question and saw it; Steve watching him, eyes black, unguarded. Looking at Danny like he was dying of thirst and Danny was an oasis.

They’d been screwing a couple of times a week for over a month since then, sweet and easy at first, athletic and uncomplicated. Spend enough time naked together, though, and tendencies will emerge.

~~*~~

“Aww… _Jesus_ … Danny, fuck me, _fuuuck_.…”

Steve looked almost like Danny’s daydreams of him – twisting on his back in his own bed, body glowing with sweat, head tilted far enough that his neck was slightly arched. 

So beautiful.

He had one hand gripping his sheets randomly, the other digging into Danny’s shoulder as he pushed hard against Danny’s fingers, two of them deep inside, stroking Steve just right, making him jump and gasp.

Thing is, Steve had already come in his own hand ten minutes before, head against the headboard, sucking and swallowing around Danny and jerking himself off, so technically, yeah, this was overstimulation.

They hadn’t put labels on things, not at all. Danny wanted him to broach it, to go there first, but it hadn’t happened. Not shocking from the guy who seemed to disappear into himself the second you tried to get a little closer to him.

“C’mon, I’m open like a goddamned garage door and you know it, just… please. _Please_ …”

Danny said nothing about Steve's spur of the moment choice of doors to pick for his metaphor, although he thought Doctor Freud might have had a field day with it. Instead he silently got his hand out of there and rearranged them, kneeling between Steve’s widely flung legs, pulling him almost up on his lap and dipping in, taking him slowly. He pushed past the first ring of resistance, then the second and stopped there, thrusting shallowly.

He wasn’t in this to make him sob. Not tonight.

“Don’t act like you don’t love this,” Danny leaned in to say it against his ear, his cheek as he fucked him. “Cock whore. You want it back the second it goes away, don’t you? Bet I can make you come again. Bet I could get you off three, four times ‘til you’re empty, spent….”

Steve’s hand had found its way between them as Danny gritted out the words and was flying now.

Danny felt him twisting under him, ass clenching in quick, hard contractions as he came again and hell if that didn't set him off too. He tried to keep his eyes open, to watch as much of this as he could because… oh God, Steve losing it...

“I know,” Danny said it more gently as they came back down to earth, separating. “I know how you want it. Everything you want from me.”

Someone had to say it. It was so past time.

Steve only nodded, eyes closed.

“Why haven’t you asked? You’re not afraid of…. anything. But you’re avoiding it.”

“Can we talk about it tomorrow?” Steve’s voice was heavy, raspy from the throat massage and Danny smiled. He couldn’t wait to hear echoes of that at work. “I don’t like to talk about it at night. Before I go to sleep.”

“Shit,” it kind of pulled the air out of him. “That bad?”

Steve nodded again, urging Danny over so he could spoon him.

Danny would like to think it was for the closeness, but he knew Steve just didn’t want any more eye contact. 

He took the arm Steve threw over him and wrapped his own around it, squeezing his hand as Steve turned into a puddle against him.

What. The fuck. Had happened to him?


	3. Fireworks

“I’m not a newbie,” Steve said from the passenger’s seat as they drove Pali Highway. “At what you offered me. Last night.”

“Oh,” Danny reached to turn the radio down. “So I guess we’re talking about this at work?”

“Sure. We can talk about anything.” Steve glanced out his window. “But we should institute a ‘no fucking on the job’ rule. Or I might have problems later. With boundaries.”

“Good plan,” Danny nodded. “Because our arrest rate if we don’t? I don’t even want to contemplate it. But… I already knew you weren’t a newbie.”

“Yeah?” Steve sat up straighter, eyes brighter.

“I also know whatever it was that happened? It had to be bad. Bad enough you’re afraid you’ll dream about it, what? Years later?”

So much for the flicker of light in those baby blue-greens; Danny had been hoping to draw him out, but that obviously wasn’t happening today.

“Okay, fine, just… _Jesus,_ tell me it’s not too gruesome. Like somebody dying, or something.”

“No,” Steve said it fast, nerve endings audible in his voice. “Thing is, it’s in my past and it’s not what I need help with. I want to stop limiting my life because of it. I’m ready.”

“Is this the first time you’re trying? Did you ever get counseling?”

“Sure. But I never found anyone I trusted enough. And I’m not into analysis.”

“Stunning. Not.” Danny said, but he tried to keep his voice upbeat. “So what’s changed?”

“I did find someone. I trust you, D. And I want to forget about the past. Let’s work on where I am now. That’s what really matters, isn’t it?”

“That’s a beautiful sentiment,” Danny reached and picked up his hand, giving it a squeeze. “And seriously, nice try babe; very smooth of you hiding behind all those pretty words but… no fucking way.”

Steve’s gaze went back out his window.

“I don’t have a lot of rules,” Danny said. “But that’s one– you don’t get to hide from me. So I will know, sooner or later, what I’m helping you work through. Understood?”

“Yes,” Steve said softly. “I hear you.”

They rode in silence, Danny wondering if he’d pushed too hard too fast when…

“What are your other rules?” Steve asked. 

“Why, are you worried?”

“No,” he shifted, cheeks coloring, and Danny bit his own lip to keep from smiling. Holy hell. Steve was aching for it, from a small dose of him laying down the law. That felt… so good.

“They’re simple. You don’t lie to me. And you don’t touch anyone else. Unless, that is, I’m in the room and instructing you. Can you deal with that?”

“Yes,” Steve said, low, a little too quickly.

“And the last big thing: When we’re … in the zone, so to speak, you can safe word out any time. I never take it wrong. But if you don’t do what you’re told and you don’t safe word out I’m treating it as rebelling. That’s punishable. So are talking back and getting casual – like using knick names.”

“You want me to respect your role.”

“Exactly. Speaking of which, you can call me ‘sir’ or whatever but that’s not a big thing for me. Just react the way you feel you need to, within respectful boundaries, and do what I ask. Simple.”

“Can we start tonight?”

“Friday,” Danny said and it was notable how he told, didn’t ask. “When we don’t have time pressures.” 

Danny looked at Steve when he didn’t get an answer and snickered. 

“You’re sorry you instituted that ‘no fucking on the job’ rule, aren’t you?”

“Maybe we could say it goes into effect tomorrow?”

“Friday, babe,” Danny turned the radio back up. “Friday night.”

~~*~~

“When you’re holding your hands in place, which position is least stressful?”

Danny stood in his boxers, inches from where a naked Steve was perched on the edge of his own bed. Steve held his hands out, down on his thighs and Danny nodded. 

“And which is most stressful?”

Steve swept his arms tight and high behind him, one hand grabbing the other wrist, both well north of the bed. Made sense: Much less control.

“How about behind your head? Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” Steve put them there for him, fingers lacing. “It gets uncomfortable. But it doesn’t make me any more jumpy than in front.”

“Okay, great. At ease,” Danny said with mock solemnity and Steve sighed as Danny sat, pulling over a bag that had been waiting nearby.

“Bought me presents?” 

“Our first toys.” Danny pulled out the roll of shiny black something, handing it to him. “This isn’t tape. It’s made of PVC. Won’t stick to your skin or pull hair out when I untie you. One short strip around won’t hold. You could get right out of it. Loop it around two or three times, though, and it holds _shockingly_ well.”

Steve nodded, silent. They’d talked about his triggers; being restrained and striking implements. They’d agreed to work on the former first.

“Got a few other things.” Danny took Steve’s attention off the roll. “We won’t use all of these now but… you can start stocking up our goodie drawer.”

“Nice,” Steve took the blindfold Danny handed him. It was soft cotton, a greyish black. There were holes in the back to tug each arm through, and enough fabric to both tie it tight and cushion the snap he’d just found with his fingers.

“I like it ‘cause it looks less like eyeshades and more like ‘kidnapped by pirates.’ Keep it handy, okay?” Danny reached back into the bag. “This can go into the drawer.”

A paddle: long, about a foot including the thin handle with dips in it for finger grips. The solid striking surface was made of a material that felt like firm rubber.

“Anything less intimidating in there?” Steve put the paddle away quickly.

“Rubber ball,” Danny handed it to him. “For non-verbal safe wording when your mouth is… very busy. You can put that aside. Leather padded cuffs; they can also go in the drawer. But these? I’m hoping to enjoy momentarily.”

He pulled a soft pouch out and put it in Steve’s hand, let him open it. A chain fell out, a foot long at least, each link rose gold. Steve had to shake the bag to get the alligator clamps to fall out; matching gold, with black rubber on the grippers and tension knobs.

“Those are beautiful, Danny,” Steve said as Danny hooked the chain onto the clamps.

“No cheap jewelry for you,” Danny tried to make it sound like a joke, but they both knew he wasn’t kidding. “I’ll buy more pieces to attach, this is for starters.”

Steve saw Danny set the chain aside and reach into the nightstand for lube, a condom, and he sighed, looking anywhere but back at him. 

“You ready?” Danny asked and he nodded. 

There really wasn’t anything more to say.

~~*~~

“ _Aww_ ww… yeah. Yeah… _suuu_ ck, now. Harder…” Danny kept a strong grip on the spot where Steve’s wrists were taped together behind his head, and pressed him down lower.

He’d started out with a single loop of the PVC, and showed Steve that he really could pull his hands free from it if he wanted to. Then he’d refastened it and flipped off his own boxers before folding Steve forward right where he was sitting. It wasn’t a full-out stress position, but he hoped the combination of the demanding angle and his hands on him, combined with the orders to lick or suck or bite might help him not obsess on being restrained.

Steve followed every gritted-out instruction with precision; his tongue running up the back of Danny’s dick in a tight, pushed out point, or making slow, soft circles around the head. He gave Danny’s balls, his cock, his thighs everything Danny asked of him. Danny found his own breath ramping up quickly; it wasn’t just the stimulation, although that was… exquisite. It was the jumpy, tense excitement radiating off of Steve. Oh, and him very visibly enjoying being used this way.

He noticed how the sounds Steve made got deeper, almost frantic whenever Danny pushed or pulled at him or held him in place. No _kidding_ ; restraint was going to be hard for him, if something this mild….. 

Time for another distraction.

“You are such a good, obedient little cock slut,” Danny bent forward to say it closer to his head. “So beautiful like this, shaking and sweating and grunting like an animal. You’d love it if I let go right now and fucked your face, wouldn’t you?”

Steve made an incoherent sound as he sucked, long and full of the shiver Danny could see running through his body and oh _God_ , so much needy, amped up _want_ …

Danny had to grab at himself, push Steve gently away to keep back from the edge.

Okay. Erotic humiliation is a go. Makes him lose his shit in a hurry. So noted.

“ _Stop_ , that’s…” Danny helped him back to sitting straight up. “…that was … _wow._ Here, wait…”

He flipped the strip of tape off and Steve’s arms fell, went automatically around Danny’s lower back as Steve leaned on him. Danny held him, let him rest for five seconds.

“Sit up. Arms behind your back, fingers gripped together.”

The sound Steve made then was a weak objection, but he did it.

“No, babe,” he stroked Steve’s head, hands falling to those biceps, rubbing them. “Not high and tight like that, I heard you back there. Just… drop them down, low and loose, elbows out. Perfect. Now turn to your right for me.”

Danny had cut a longer segment of the PVC tape and had it handy. He started it around Steve’s left wrist, making snug, overlapping loops until Steve’s clasped hands were bound behind him, low enough that he could press his wrists back and into the bed for a little balance if he needed to.

This time, Steve was going nowhere until Danny undid him and the difference in his reaction was shocking.

“ _Yellow!_ ” Steve barked it like an order, still sitting but looking like he wanted to get up. He was shaking, his eyes flashing with something close to anger, aimed hard at a random spot on the floor past Danny. 

All the beautiful sex-haze that had been softening his face was gone. Just like that.

“Yellow or red?” Danny said it softly, stepped fully in front of him again, one hand on Steve’s shoulder, the other holding the side of his head, watching his frowning face, the furrow in his forehead. 

He stroked an ear with his thumb, wordlessly urging him to look at him. It felt like stopping too fast might be just as upsetting to Steve as going forward.

“Tell me where you are, okay? ‘Cause if you’re done, if this isn’t all right, you need to say so. But if you only want a breather…”

He’d kept his voice low, watching Steve relax in increments with every few words, eyes closing. He was still shaking a little and Danny got ready to reach for the end of the tape if he didn’t say something soon.

“Don’t stop,” Steve finally said, his voice thin but calmer now. “Wait. Okay?”

“I’ll wait all night if you want,” Danny kept touching him lightly, leaned in when Steve opened his eyes, kissing him – deep, deeper, deepest, until eventually he felt Steve relaxing into it, kissing him back.

He broke the kiss slowly and smiled into those dark eyes.

“Go?”

“Yeah,” Steve nodded. “Go.”

“I’ll dial these down to almost the lowest setting,” He picked up the clamps, loosening the tension knobs, and Steve started to look around like maybe he’d had thoughts of stretching back on the bed or against the headboard. “Stay there, please.”

Danny took half a step back and leaned down, running his tongue over one of Steve’s nipples. He started biting it gently while reaching to pluck and tug at the other and Steve twisted silently, in anticipation as much as reaction. Danny switched sides and nipped at the other one once, harder, and Steve jumped, muttering ‘fuck!’ as Danny pressed the first clip open and applied it right there in place of his mouth.

“Holy… _uhn_ … that’s … _less_ tight?” 

Danny nodded, taking in his reactions as he pressed open the second clip and attached it. He watched the way Steve jumped and then settled, arms flexing in reaction to both the sharp zings and constant, burning pressure afterward that he couldn’t do a thing about.

Danny gave the chain some tugs with his fingertips and there it was, what he’d pictured when he first spotted it in the case at the shop; Steve tied up and feeling this, gasping, the clips twisting a little each time he tugged, the gold gorgeous against his skin.

“So goddamned beautiful….”

Danny leaned in to flick at each clip with his tongue, moving back and forth between them to bite softly at them, around them. Steve had made some pretty sounds already but this, it drew out the first long moan, Steve’s eyes closing, and Danny felt it everywhere. He imagined the shocks he was sending through him, how they were running together, meeting at the spot where ass met balls, met cock. 

Danny kept at it until Steve was rocking, trying to thrust and then he pulled away and reached for the lube, popping it open with one hand. 

He kissed and licked his way down over his ribs, feeling how his abs were rigid with the effort of staying up and balanced. 

“Spread for me,” Danny pushed Steve’s thighs wider and knelt between them, taking a second to enjoy the whole picture; Steve half gone, eyes barely open, cock at full attention, flared and flushed.

It was so hard to resist dropping in and swallowing him whole, but Danny wanted a little more out of him first. He got some lube on his right hand and wrapped it loosely around Steve, tugging, barely, as he started returning the favor Steve had done him earlier; nipping at his thighs, then licking and mouthing at his balls, starting slow and picking up the pace, reaching and getting his free fingers around the chain again, tugging it in rhythm with his sucks and jerks.

“Oh, _yeeaa_ ah… _fuck_ , Danny, don’t .. don’t stop, _please_ keep.. awwww…”

Steve’s voice had that floaty, fucked up tone in it he’d heard earlier, and Danny made a sound assuring him he wasn’t going anywhere.

He wanted to push him right out of his own brain, and it sure felt like he was ready to leave it behind. Steve was twitching hard against his palm, his fingers as he stroked, his whole body tight – neck, shoulders, arms and legs all straining. Danny heard the sounds Steve was making get short and tight, too, him gulping in air, and he got up without slowing his hand. He put his other arm around him to give him something more to lean against and…oh, _hell_ …. 

Steve froze with a strangled shout, and Danny stopped to let the orgasm slam through him, to watch how his eyes squeezed shut as he started seizing and releasing over and over. Danny held him closer, lips grazing his forehead as he stroked him through it, his hand flying fast, sloppy with lube and cum, until Steve was spent. He felt almost boneless in his arms as Danny helped him down on his side.

“Turn,” Danny urged, undoing the tape layer by layer. Steve barely moved.

“Well, that was…. explosive,” Danny murmured, a little smile in his voice, and Steve’s face, already bright from exertion went a little redder. “Don’t you dare be embarrassed! It was… so fucking hot. Watching that.”

Watching you get what you want, Danny thought, keeping the last few words to himself.

“It shouldn’t have been that hard for me. I .. I’m sorry I reacted that way. That I freaked out.”

“Shouldn’t have been so hard the first time I tied you up? When you are expressly afraid of being restrained? How about, instead, focusing on the fact that you came like a _freight_ train the first time I tied you up? Glass very half full, Steve.”

“You didn’t…” Steve’s eyes opened and he nodded toward Danny. “You haven’t…”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will,” Danny pushed aside the tape and ran a hand up and down his back before heading for the shower. “It’s early, still. Catch your breath and come join me.”

He waited until enough time had passed that it would be more pleasure than punishment, and took Steve in the shower. It felt fantastic – Steve loose and relaxed, squeezing hard around Danny with his hands on the wall. 

Right where Danny had told him to put them.

~~*~~

It may have been early, but a ton of ‘fight or flight’ hormones had been generated, followed by a flood of endorphins, and it didn’t take him long to see that Steve was on the verge of crashing.

He brought a snack of grapes and cheese and iced tea upstairs and practically fed it to him as they lay with the TV on. Neither of them really even knew what Steve was blipping past on the channels.

“You don’t have to do that,” Steve objected eventually, something heavy and annoyed in his voice as Danny served him another grape and handed him a cracker full of gouda. Danny silently insisted he take it and then tugged, not gently, at Steve’s hair to make a point.

“Part of my job. And you don’t get to tell me not to. Gonna make me punish you our very first time?”

“Sorry,” Steve said it fast, barely done chewing, then seemed to think about it. “I’m sorry, Danny.”

“It’s okay.”

“I think…” Steve flicked past a few more channels and handed him the remote, sinking down and against him until he was flat. “… I’m done.”

“That’s okay, too,” Danny started to explain the electro-chemical reasons why, but realized he would only be talking to himself if he did.

He ditched the remote and the plate, sliding down. He listened to Steve’s breathing go even and light, felt him solid and deeply out against him. All his. _More_ his than two hours ago. 

Not that Danny was blindly optimistic it would be smooth sailing. If anything, things were only getting more complicated. Because he had a pretty good idea now, what Steve might have been through. And the possibilities? Hell, the _probabilities_ – they kind of broke his heart.

He was going to get more out of him tomorrow. He even knew the very first question he would ask him.


	4. Movie Night

Danny lay watching Steve wake up to his first day as his sub. Normally he’d still be out at dawn on a Saturday, but he didn’t want to let him wake up to it alone. And he was ready to dig deeper.

Steve’s eyes warmed as he read one motivation in Danny’s eyes, then narrowed as he spotted the other. 

“He meant something to you.” Danny said. “Didn’t he? The guy who didn’t stop when you said stop? He wasn’t a random pick up.”

Steve rolled over on his back, and Danny wasn’t sure whether to ask again or wait.

“It wasn’t any great love affair, but yeah. He did,” Steve finally said. “I knew what I wanted really young. You know how you’d play-wrestle with friends?”

“No,” Danny settled into his pillow. “Honestly, didn’t do that much. Fought with my brother ‘til we were both bloody, but…”

“I did. By the time I was thirteen I was playing to lose. I had my first kiss and came for someone for the first time pinned to the floor of my bedroom. So by the age when most kids are barely figuring things out, I was looking for guidance. He felt like an adult. We both… seemed to know what the other needed.”

“What happened?”

Steve flicked on a bedside lamp and Danny pulled a pillow behind them as they sat up.

“Here.” 

Steve showed him his left wrist, and Danny noticed for the first time the thin, white scar, deeper on the outside of his arm than the inside. Making a mark that long lasting? 

“I pulled so hard at the cuffs…”

“Shit, babe….”

“Here, too,” Steve raised an arm and Danny saw the longer, thicker white lines along his left ribs-- easy to miss until they were pointed out. “And here…”

Steve turned away and ran a hand over his own lower back. Danny traced the long, raised lines of paler skin that ran east to west along with him, and felt his eyes watering.

“You’re lucky you didn’t end up with kidney damage.”

“Yeah. I was a mess. But I never went to the hospital. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t…. stay focused. I was so somewhere else, I didn’t feel him losing it, either.”

“You do know it was still illegal? Even if he didn’t mean…”

“I do now,” Steve slid back down, pulling Danny with him. “We were young. Careers were at stake. Believe me, he paid; we had mutual friends watching him for weeks, afraid he’d….”

“ _Shit_ ,” Danny got an arm around him. “I would never, ever…”

“I know,” Steve’s said. “Know you won’t. Told you, I trust you.”

~~*~~

“Grab some coffee and come see…” Chin called from the bullpen computer as Steve walked in. 

Danny was already with Chin, and he only glanced up for a second - eyes barely leaving the flow of images, maps and data.

“What’s up?” 

“Closed circuit video. They found more views of the fire that wiped out that import warehouse,” Chin gestured to the far corner of the screen. “Might have caught decent shots of our arsonist. A new case came in, too; Kono’s making calls.”

“Got it,” Steve walked to her office, gladly. He had zero doubt he and Danny could keep work and their changing relationship separate, but he wanted this first Monday over with.

“Hey,” Kono looked up from her PC. “Good weekend?”

Steve got a flash; him stretched out on his bed on elbows and knees, hands and arms taped tight and head down as Danny slowly fucked every last sound out of him.

“Yeah. You?”

“It was great. Friends in town. Looks like we’ve got a killer with a kink on our hands.” 

She turned her screen and Steve pulled up a chair. 

“Come read what HPD sent us…” Kono checked her email on her phone while he did.

“So the first vic…” Steve said, still perusing. “…erotic asphyxiation. At home, with signs of someone scrubbing the scene afterward. And they thought it was random because he was a sex club regular?”

“Yeah. The club he belonged to is legit, licensed, monitored. But the dead guy? Not … selective. As in, taking someone new home every third night. The calls I made, the phrase ‘accident waiting to happen’ came up repeatedly.”

She pulled up the fact sheet on the second killing and Steve read it.

“And here’s the thing,” she pointed. “The second vic? A polar opposite; family man found in a hotel room, no history. Maybe living two lives?”

“May be,” Steve nodded. 

“So… let’s find where our two victims intersect, if at all. Right? Find their commonalities, and we find our suspect.”

“Good thinking. Got a list of people you think we need to start talking to?”

“Sure do, boss.”

~~*~~ 

“Was it uncomfortable for you? Having to go there as law enforcement and not a client?”

Danny asked it against Steve’s head, the two of them stretched out on Steve’s couch right after work. He usually got spooned, and it hadn’t escaped Danny that he was now the one with his back to the couch, holding him. New roles, new spoon formation.

“What do you mean, _there_?”

“C’mon,” Danny leaned up, peering down at him for a second. “Are we gonna do this? It’s a small island. You’ve gotta have been to the Belle Aurore. Like, a lot.”

It was the only upscale, private sex club catering to both couples and singles of all tastes and intensity levels, with a lounge, bar and restaurant so good even non-swingers went.

“Only ever been to the bar. I’m not a client, Danny.”

“I hear they have private rooms. And the top floor? Supposedly not just offices,” Danny said. “There’s supposedly a big, glassed-in room for group play with seats for watching.”

“I’ve heard that, too.” Steve said, turning to face him. “Only been to the bar. Can we play?”

“Addicted?” Danny let him change the subject. “I thought I’d stay at my place tonight.”

“ _Please_ ,” Steve cupped Danny’s face. “I’ll do anything you want.”

~~*~~

“Stand there and wait,” Danny nodded at the bare bedroom wall, enjoying the sight of an equally bare Steve walking toward it.

“No tape?” Steve said, eyeing the small group of items Danny brought over.

“Nope. Only willpower.” Danny held waved a gold plated item. “And a new toy. I’ll get the chain to go with it next time I go shopping.”

He reached in and slid the cock ring on Steve, threading his balls through, smiling at the way Steve’s hands found Danny’s shoulders as he shifted in place, pushing out a softly huffed breath.

“This part of the evening’s not about you. It’s about you doing what I ask. You do, you’ll get to come - plus a treat. If not, well, you won’t be blissing out for… days. Got it?”

“Yeah,” Steve eyed the table where Danny had set things. “What else? For toys?”

“I want to try out the paddle,” Danny got another nod, but Steve’s eyes narrowed as he looked away. “That’s why no bondage right now– one step at a time, with each individual thing. Oh, and I got this nifty candle; burns not too hot. Something for your soon-to-be-aching ass.”

“That’s it?” Steve asked, but from the edge of a shake in his voice it was mostly bravado.

“Watch your mouth,” Danny got his fingers in Steve’s hair, tugging hard and getting a hiss in return. “Perilously close to smartass. Again. Second session in a row.”

“I’m sorry. I know, I….”

“There’s _also_ the challenge portion of the evening. Hands over your head, up high. Perfect. Now, fingertips against the wall, and step back - up on the balls of your feet.”

Danny positioned him, adoring the acres of ‘fuck, that’s gorgeous’ stretched out long and very taut in front of him. He ran a hand along Steve’s back, the upward curve of his hips and his jutted-out ass.

“For how long?” Steve asked, and Danny could see him bracing, regulating his breathing. 

“Twenty minutes. Two rules: You don’t come, and you don’t leave that position – and I mean not a quarter of an inch. Oh, third rule; no more chatter.”

Steve took the hint and nodded, silent, and Danny smiled as he turned to light the candle.

~~*~~

“Ah _hhh_ , nooo… ngg _ghhh_ …” Steve was gritting it out, twisting in place by minute ten, glowing with a light sheen of sweat with his eyes boring upward toward his stress-whitened fingertips like he was willing them to stay put. 

Danny had a feeling he would never hear _‘that’s all?’_ again.

He’d taken his time lighting the candle, turning down the bed, and letting Steve hang out until he was good and uncomfortable. Then he ducked down and around, squatting, to rub and lick and suck and slap his tongue against the very tip of Steve’s cock without touching any other inch of his body; one minute, two, three… an unsubtle, maddening tease with no end in sight until Steve was dancing in place, pushing at the wall hard with those few inches of his digits, fighting like crazy to stand his ground.

“Too much?” Danny asked, leaning back to lick his lips, smiling at the long, frustrated groan he got in reply. He stood up and hooked an arm under Steve’s ribs for support. “Maybe this will help…wanna help. On your side, babe. I want you to make it.”

The first few slaps to his ass were sharp but fast, attention-getters, and they did seem to pull Steve back from the edge. He stopped twisting, coming down a touch and that’s when Danny let go – hit after strong hit, each accompanied by loud snapping sound, covering the full range of those beautiful mounds until his hand was tingling and pink as the skin he was striking.

Steve ate it up, relaxing into Danny’s arm, leaning into each one.

“Color, please?” Danny moved his arm so Steve barely had any support again, reaching for the paddle as he did.

“Green,” it came out a low murmur and Danny asked again, silently, with a quick slap of the paddle low on his ass aimed at radiating straight through those balls. “Ahh..nnngg.. Green, Danny. Swear it.”

The paddle was long but thin, a soft rubber and Danny could feel each reverberation, both in his hand and in his mind; he knew from experience the loose, thuddy sensation running through that ass every time it landed, how the pain/pleasure ran fast in a random web down Steve’s thighs, along his cock. 

The best part was watching him brace, shuddering, hearing him suck in air the moment before each hit landed.

“The good news?” Danny reached to murmur in his ear when his striking arm eventually demanded a rest. “You’re three quarters of the way through. The bad news? You’ve got another five minutes to go…”

Steve heaved something between a laugh and a sigh, nodding, and Danny left him to get the candle. 

“I can do this I …. Oh _hhh_ hh…. mm _mmm_ mm….”

The candle drippings were made not to burn, but that didn’t equal ‘cool.’ Danny thought their scene might be over when the first drops hit Steve’s hips, the slick white wax sliding down his very red ass. His whole body jumped straight up in response, settling slowly back down with a long shiver.

Danny got an arm under him again, blowing out the candle and tossing it by his feet as he did, rubbing the cooling liquid into his skin, back down over his perineum, pushing super slick fingers inside him as it turned into massage oil. And if holding him up a touch was cheating? Well, screw his own damn rules. Steve was doing so well for him, fucking back against his fingers, so beautiful.

“So good, baby, so close. You want to come, right? Want to lay out on our bed and let me swallow you down? I will, if you give me this, hold on…four minutes…I’ll suck you off so hard…”

And yeah, because he was a dom and because he needed to see how far he could push him, how much he could take and what Steve would give, Danny dropped back down again, a hand digging into Steve’s thigh, the other reaching behind to keep petting and stroking and prodding at his hole as he went back to licking him, tongue swirling and teasing and…

“Danny… awwww… fuck, _fuck_ me, nooo, no…”

Steve was shouting, to the sky as much as to him but he _didn’t_ come and Danny didn’t stop -- because the sound running strong underneath the shout? It was all victory.

~~**~

He’d thought about trying to get Steve in the shower after he came, but that clearly wasn’t happening. He’d slid into a half-sleep in under two minutes, long before Danny was done kissing his way back up Steve’s body.

“You blowing me, will that be my treat?” Steve had asked as he’d hit the bed and Danny had shook his head, walking to the computer he’d hooked up to the TV long before, starting the movie.

“This… is a huge favorite of mine,” he’d slid into bed with him as the very modern but also quite black and white movie began, a dom starting slowly in on his sub with a flogger. “He suffers so pretty, this one… almost as pretty as you. Not quite.”

Steve had only responded with an arm reaching back around Danny, fingers in Danny’s hair as he watched, absorbed. Danny watched too, whispering in his ear how this would be them, soon, how he’d make him lose his mind in a thousand different ways.

He’d nipped and licked his way down Steve’s ears, chest, abs, to his cock and barely got the ring off of him, only sucked three, four, five times before he was swallowing, Steve falling almost silently apart for him.

Now he was so gone, he didn’t even stir when Danny ran warm, wet towels over him, when he came back with a thick sheet and tossed it over both of them, sliding back into bed and under it as it fell.

At some point he woke up and found himself on his back, Steve’s head by his ribs and an arm heavy over him, possessive. 

This time, it was hard to tell who belonged to whom.


	5. Well, this isn’t good…

They spent the next days working the two cases; Kono with Steve, and Danny with Chin. Wednesday was spent in HQ, sharing what they’d learned and bouncing ideas around.

They were confident the arson case would unravel soon. Their killer with a kink?

“Hey,” Danny waved off the groan his ‘we’re at a dead end’ got him. “That was meant literally.”

“Literally goofy,” Chin scooped up his files. “Time for a break, no?”

“I vote yes,” Steve stayed in his chair. “Kono, hang here, okay?”

“Sure boss,” she was flicking through notes she’d taken, but the way Steve waited for the others to leave wasn’t lost on her. “Something wrong?”

“No. You were there: Do you think we got everything we could out of them?”

“The owners of the sex club?” She set the tablet she’d been reading down and kicked back a little. “I think they were cooperating, but there’s no way they can know every one of their clients personally. And vic number one being relatively new to them complicates things.”

“Think we should send someone in … unofficially? To ask around again, more with the clientele this time?”

“Maybe. It’s like any other community where people don’t really talk with the cops; someone viewed as ‘one of them’ might have more luck drawing out details.”

“Let’s give it some thought. We can decide tomorrow.” Steve said.

~~*~~

Danny wasn’t sure which of them he was more pissed at: Himself for doubting his instincts and feeling like a crap weasel for suspecting him-- or Steve for acting like one. He’d noticed too much to ignore it: Steve cutting short the conversation on the asphyxiation deaths, the way he had held Kono back, and then… the capper.

“Mind if I go home alone tonight?” Steve asked it standing by the Camaro as they left. “If you do, if it’s a problem…”

“Of course not,” Danny reached in for a light kiss, hand on the latch to his car door. 

His face was even, but his heart fell; a sub as hungry as Steve had been so far, begging off this soon? Not likely.

He sat in the driver’s seat for three minutes trying to talk himself out of it. Then he drove to the Belle Aurore. It was so disappointing, seeing Steve’s truck there. He hadn’t even bothered to hide it in the back lot.

“Oh, babe, what are you _thinking_?” Danny threw the Camaro into park. “You know what I do for a living…”

~~*~~

“How much to go upstairs?” Danny asked the concierge, reaching for his wallet. 

“The downstairs bar and restaurant are open to the public. The rest of the club is members only, sir.”

“And how much to get around that formality?” Danny asked, rifling through bills. 

“No amount of money is worth the security risk,” the concierge was polite but definite, reaching into the desk, pulling together some paperwork. “If you’d like to join, there’s a written application. Then an in-person interview during business hours.”

“Perfect,” Danny took the papers.

“There’s a private office, if you’d like to fill it out there?”

“Thanks. The bar's fine. I’m not shy.”

He was glad to see they had unbending standards. There would be even more room to appreciate it, if he weren’t pre-occupied by the fact that Steve was _here_ but _not_ in the downstairs bar, _not_ in the restaurant. 

He was upstairs. 

_“Only ever been to the bar. I’m not a client, Danny.”_

Everybody lies. Every second or third person cheats. It’s why he sticks to the most basic of rules for his subs; the more the rules… the more they’ll just get broken.

~~*~~

The arson case cracked wide open the next morning. They were too busy to talk, which was fine with Danny.

First they busted the guys who actually flicked the Bics. They were local kids; hard but not hardened criminals. Still…Steve let Kono really cut her teeth on them in the interrogation room. Damn that was fun, watching her grill them. Danny felt a little zing of something almost like pride, wondering if there wasn’t a little dom in her.

Then they went after the higher-ups. One of the honchos was in jail now, too. The other made a plane before they could get him, but they had a flight number; the Vegas cops would escort him right back.

_“Tonight?”_

Danny stopped on the courthouse steps when he saw the text message from Steve. He’d just left the arraignment, and was enjoying the glow of a successful day. The evening could be just as productive, if he handled it well. He wanted it to, for Steve’s sake.

“ _Yes_ ,” he texted back. “ _My apartment. Ninety minutes. Don’t be late.”_

~~*~~

“Hey,” The word came out softly, a little tentative as Steve walked in. 

“Get over here,” Danny jutted his chin out straight in front of where he was sitting on the sofa, one arm over the back. The message was ‘stand there, don’t sit with me.’

“What’s wrong?” Steve did, shifting in place, arms at his side instead of on his hips. 

“Strip. Then kneel – hands low behind your back.”

“Can I ask…”

“Quiet. Do it, no talking except to answer.” Danny wanted to watch it - him preparing for his first punishment. Wanted to remember it for a long time. 

Steve’s eyes were on Danny as he flipped off his t-shirt and folded it. Danny watched him struggling with confusion, frustration as he kicked off his shoes and unzipped. Then he saw it dawn, what this was about, the way he bit his lip and flinched.

His eyes met Danny’s again, as he dropped slowly to his knees.

“Did you fuck anyone at the club last night? Did you touch anyone, let them touch you?”

“No,” Steve said it very fast, almost like he was angry Danny even asked.

“You think that’s an unreasonable question?”

“No. It’s not.” Steve’s voice was heavy, but not as angry.

“But you’re not happy I followed you.”

“I’ve been happier.”

Almost, not quite, sarcastic; Danny had to push down a little wave of anger.

“Some people who are submissive in bed, they’re submissive all day long,” he said. “We both know that’s not you. You even warned me you’d be a hand full. Right? ‘Cause you’re going to do what you damn well want ninety percent of the time.”

Steve didn’t say a thing, but Danny saw the smallest of nods.

“That's why all l I asked of you was never to lie to me, or be with anyone else. Hasn’t even been two weeks, Steve, and you’re down one of two. You could have been honest, said you belonged to the place, but you chose not to. I’m willing to punish you pretty mildly for the lie this first time, but if you _ever_ let anyone else..."

“I won’t. I was there for the case, and you know it. It panned out. I got a lead. Kono’s working it.”

“Awesome. But stop. This isn’t a discussion.” Danny shook his head when Steve’s eyes flew to him like he wanted to object again. “Are you afraid of the paddle?” 

Danny lifted it from the sofa cushion and, oh, yes, it was fully registering with him now.

“No. I’m not afraid of it.”

“Are you sure? Striking implements were a specific concern. I’m asking again, are you okay with it?”

“I am, as long as….”

“I’m not going to bind you while I use it. What I’m about to do, it’s to remind you what you have; someone who gets you and what you need. The consequences of lying come later. Now get over here, but don’t get up. Hands and knees, please.” 

Danny shifted so Steve would get a good look at him, hard-on clearly defined in his pants, as he crawled his way.

“Sideways, yeah. Like that. You can shift, you can drop down on your elbows if you need to – but no moving away. And you can come whenever you want, but I’m fucking you afterward so if you want to save it for then…” 

He sat forward, ran the hand with the paddle over Steve’s back, cupped the other under his neck, a thumb on his jaw, urging him to look straight ahead.

“Yes, Dan..ny….” 

The third syllable came out a stuttered grunt as the paddle connected with his muscled ass, snapping loudly again and again on his skin as Danny made it fly.

He enjoyed the advantages of holding Steve this way, feeling him swallow hard against his hand, noting how his breathing was speeding up already as he absorbed the strikes, eyes falling closed. _Fuck_ , he was loving this. Wanted it.

“Not much of a punishment when you’re eating it up, babe…” He leaned in to say it close to his ear. “My gorgeous pain whore. That’s why you want someone you can trust, so you can take it longer, can float in and out of it all damn day. I’ll get you there. I’ll have you flying, I promise.”

He moved to change angles, slapping the paddle lighter, faster on the more sensitive spots where ass met thighs and Steve jumped, gasping, eyes open again.

“Spread for me. More.” Danny kept at the backs, the insides of his legs for a while, then reached in to deliver softer slaps directly to his full, tightening balls and yeah, that proved …very popular.

“Shit… _shit_ , Danny, no, ohhhh…. fuuuck, yellow!” 

Danny was surprised, but he sat back and dropped the paddle, massaging his tiring arm.

“Too much… too fast,” Steve panted, and Danny smiled, eyed Steve’s hard-on, the angle it was jutting wetly up at. “I don’t want to come yet.”

“I will, I swear; someday, I’ll paddle you until you fucking come all over yourself from it.”

“Yes,” Steve nodded, “Please, Danny. I hope so.”

“But not today?”

“No. Not until we’re in your bed, okay?”

“Who said I’m letting you in my bed?” Danny asked it with a grin that let him know he was only teasing, and the sad smile Steve gave him back suggested he already knew what the punishment ahead would be.

“All right. Kneel back up, hands in front of you.”

He tossed the paddle aside and picked up the bondage tape. He took his time tying Steve’s wrists tight together, looping the strip until it covered his hands up to the knuckles and then urged him up, face down over Danny’s lap. 

“Good thing my couch is a little wider than yours,” he dropped down and over to kiss Steve’s sweaty temple as Steve settled in, hands above his head, face turned toward Danny on the next cushion. “You could slide right off, otherwise.”

Steve was huge and heavy in his lap. It was going to be tougher for Danny like this, his arm would be feeling it tomorrow, but… so worth it. He started in again on him, the thwack of his hand on that ass, skin on skin, so different from the paddle. More intimate.

Steve in bondage was a different Steve already, not the fearful man Danny had seen their first time. He was so loose across him, now, jumping and hissing at the harder strikes but riding the rest like a wave, arms moving like he was testing the tape, loving on the confinement. 

His eyes were mostly closed, but increasingly vacant whenever they opened and … wow.. so beautiful….

“You’ll feel this for days,” Danny paused to run a hand over the reddest spots, urging Steve’s legs apart again, reaching under him to encircle his cock, squeezing lightly as he started slapping in time with each tug and twist. "Want you to remember this, every time you do."

This could be it, whether Steve liked it or not. Danny felt him close to losing it, choking back a sound, squirming on his lap as he thrust into Danny’s hand. He watched his thighs tightening, trying both to hold on and to shield his balls as Danny slapped faster, harder.

“C’mon… _yeah_ , take it. Let go. Fucking… let me hear you…” Danny jerked harder, his own cock throbbing at the long, whining groan escaping Steve’s throat, the way he gave up any pretense of control, pushing up on his knees and opening up wider, giving Danny room to land his hand wherever he wanted.

“Ohhh…pleeeaase….”

The plea was followed by a string of long, open vowels, and Danny knew he had about three seconds to push him over the edge or let him get a grip one more time.

He was punishing him. He shouldn’t give him what he wanted. But he’d been so damn good about taking it.

“All right,” he backed off, and Steve rocked to a stop, sinking down on him again, shaking from the ache Danny knew was still rolling through him. 

He searched around the cushions for the tube of lube and worked him open quickly, perfunctory, not meant to be a turn-on at all. It helped bring them both down.

“I lied because I didn’t want you to know. That I used to go there – a lot. That I fucked strangers to avoid … committing, I guess. Taking a chance.”

“The club?” Danny asked it lightly as he worked him. “As in the one I joined last night?”

“What?” Steve lifted up, looking back at him and Danny had to fight not to laugh.

“Yeah. Well, the interview is still ahead but…” He withdrew his fingers and gave Steve one last slap. “Could have saved us both some grief, babe.”

Danny took him to his room and fucked him on his stomach, then asked him to flip so he could lean in and kiss and nip at him as he came and damn, it was sweet and easy and so, so good. 

Steve drifted off the way he apparently tended to, and then they showered and hit the kitchen and Danny found something edible in the fridge. They ate slowly, talking about nothing much, in no hurry for what was ahead. There was only so much stalling they could do, though, and then they were in the parking lot, Steve’s arms looped around him looking sad and lonely already. It was all Danny could do to drop the bomb.

“Ten days,” he said and it was gratifying to see how not good that news was. “No you and me for ten days. You can come alone all you want, I’m not going to try to control you that way, but…”

“No staying over? Even just to sleep?”

“I’m going easy, babe,” Danny stepped back as Steve tried to lean into him. "I started out thinking three weeks, but..."

“Are you going to the club? When you get in?”

He didn’t say the words ‘without me’ but he didn’t have to.

Danny had warned him from the top that he considered it a dom’s right to scene with others, almost a necessity, but reinforcing the point now… yeah, that sucked, too. 

“Yes,” he said and Steve didn’t say a thing more as he got in the truck. 

He hit the brakes and the gas just a little when he was near the road, tires squealing and Danny huffed a soft sound at the show of frustration. He was almost glad for it - his beautiful, pushy sub.

He wondered as he walked back inside if Steve understood how hard the next ten days would be for him, too.


	6. Granite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of world-building, and the only 'them' messing around is in Danny's head, sorry! But hopefully a little yummy in there...

"Longboard, please?" Danny asked, and the bartender’s hand was half way in the cooler by the time Danny stopped him. "Wait, no. Scotch, rocks instead. Sorry.”

The beer would only make him think of where he could be drinking it right now, who he could be sitting next to. He wanted to be fully present, to really experience this place.

"New member?" the bartender asked, delivering the drink. "Welcome. I'm Ian."

"Danny. Thanks."

"Are you solo? Or paired up?" Ian shook his head at the look Danny shot him. "Not getting fresh, I swear. Got a girl, and I never mix work and fun. I’ve been here for ten years, though, so if I can give you any tips or suggestions….”

"Your girl, is she..."

"A dominatrix. Professionally. She works out of the club sometimes. If you're around much you'll meet her. Ellie’s her name."

"That doesn't bother you?" Danny watched Ian swabbing the bar, eyes peeled for any denial in his face as he shook his head no, but there wasn't any. 

"We're pretty traditional aside from her career except for the one thing - neither of us is the least bit possessive."

"Even though you’re a couple?”

"More so. I know it’s weird, but it works for us. I’ve learned not to judge. Even myself.” 

Ian waved a hand at the room, changing the subject. 

“So how do you like the place?"

"A lot," Danny said. "Don't take this wrong, but it's a hell of a lot nicer than I expected."

The Belle Aurore was smaller than any club back in Jersey. It seemed to be the way with everything here; small island, not heavily populated. The shops, the attractions, they were all bite sized compared with what Danny was used to. But it was posh. Danny had walked the length of it, started with the very PG rated den at the top of the stairs - a fridge, coffee service, sofas and tables, chess and backgammon. There were half a dozen people there on a Tuesday night, some chatting and some watching a movie. 

He'd given them a nod and kept going.

The bar he was sitting in was at the far opposite end of the hall, and very inviting - dark, with red and white track lighting, a slick and shiny bar and similarly glowing black tables and chairs. It felt very Paris.  
There were at least fifteen people with him, many in two’s, a trio in the corner talking and laughing, but quietly. He guessed it never got exactly rowdy in the club.

A mixed gender couple around the far end of the bar caught his eye – they were silent, sipping their drinks and staring into each other's eyes looking so very, very post-coital. It sent a hungry little shot through Danny, and he had to pull his gaze away.

"The rooms, they're well-maintained?"

"Oh, yes. Haven't been in yet?" Ian unloaded the small dishwasher under the bar as he talked. "Eight play rooms, and you'll find them spotless, well equipped. Only place in the whole island chain so carefully managed.”

"I like the system they've got for room status," Danny said. 

Each playroom door had track lighting above it that glowed red on the rooms in use, green on those available. One of the doors had a white board hanging from it, with clear instructions: _Blind date/ M seeking M only/ Acceptable toys on the table/ Stop means Stop._ A solo looking for a surprise, he'd guessed, but had kept going to the bar.

"Did you see the chairs set up by that room?" Ian pointed toward the door. “One of our more renowned doms is sharing his session with a new sub. It’ll be well worth catching.”

Danny took his time with his drink, and when he got out there all but three of the chairs were taken. He claimed the last end seat just as the privacy shade slid up, revealing two men in the playroom. One of them was on the move, the other stood still, blindfolded, facing the window. His arms were high behind his back, and Danny could tell from his positioning that each hand was clasping the opposite wrist.

The sub turned, following his master’s voice and Danny saw the soft, cloth rope encasing the sub’s arms and hands, laced tightly. He wasn’t moving them an inch, no way. 

His ankles had padded, Velcro’ed cuffs and a spreader bar between them and he clearly was going to have to work every muscle hard, from thigh to abs to arms and chest, in order to take what was given to him and stay on his feet.

The rooms had speakers. Danny saw the small circles at the top of the glass, but the dom had left them off. Maybe the sub asked to keep that much private? It was riveting, still, watching him warm his lover’s skin with his hands and then a flogger, watching the sub's stance getting taller, muscles tightening, mouth falling open, head dropping back. 

Danny noted this dom was the larger of the couple – very buff, his partner thinner with sandy blonde hair. It could be him and Steve, roles reversed, and it made him smile. It wasn't his thing, switching, and he guessed it wouldn't be for Steve either. But maybe down the road they could try it. Danny would gladly top from the bottom to experience it.

He felt _want_ at the thought of Steve like this, at the sight of the sub's head dropping forward, his body jumping with every strike, now. It was hotter than expected imagining the sounds coming out of him, how they were getting tighter, closer together, frantic. 

With no voice to go on, his brain inserted Steve’s grunts and groans, the way he huffed, swallowing his moans as long as he could, until he couldn’t contain them and… oh, _fuck_.

Danny caught movement in the seats in front of him and watched a fellow observer start palming his lover's clothed erection and, okay -- apparently that was allowed here.

"Ah, look," the man to Danny's right leaned in to watch the window a little more closely. "The cane. He doesn't always go for the cane. See how he holds it, that light grip.”

Danny nodded, knew the way it made the device jump, made each lick across the skin and muscle zing brighter, ache and sting longer.

"Your dom – he’s too heavy handed?"

"Not bad... just not this level of finesse," the guy said, eyes on the window like he was taking notes to bring home. "He has qualities that make up for it, though. And he's good at keeping it just... a sex thing. You know? ‘Cause once your heart is entangled…”

"Yeah," Danny cut him off. He didn't want to think about that tonight, about the line where sex and want turned into love. 

He let himself get lost in the show instead, fully hard by the time the sub came in his dom's hand, and it was all he could do not to get in his car and drive straight to Steve, to try to drive him equally crazy. He knew he hadn’t sent him fully into subspace yet, knew it would take time and patience and … 

_Shit_. When had he ever had someone on his brain this much? 

Rachel. That’s when. And look how that had worked out. 

The chairs emptied and Danny didn’t notice until he was alone. 

On the way out, he saw the room with the guy looking for a blind date still glowing green and he stopped, started to leave again before turning and walking in. He’d tried to hang tough, to be as hard as rock but damn… even granite crumbles, eventually.

"Against the wall, please,” Danny told him, inspecting the toys on the table, working up a plan for the scene, loosening his shirt cuffs. “Hands flat on it, feet two steps back.”

The guy was fine-- decent but unremarkable; something simple. Uncomplicated. 

Screw it all. He was going to have that tonight, while he still could. 

~~*~~

The next day was the sixth day of their time apart and Steve seemed to be doing well, maybe better than him? So Danny was surprised and confused when he walked into the office after lunch and saw Steve looking like a thundercloud, anger and sorrow and… panic in his eyes. Most people wouldn't have noticed the third thing, but Danny did.

"What's up?" 

Danny wondered if there was any way in hell Steve might have sensed where he'd been the night before, and then dumped the thought as egocentric. 

"There's been another murder," Kono confirmed the real problem, handing Danny a couple of sheets of paper from case file, pulling up a map and images of the location. "At Laie, in a nice little bungalow along the water. Looks to be our killer with the kink; the deceased was bound, strangled, and has three fresh bite marks in the exact locations as vics one and two."

"Anything else?" Danny asked, looking at the autopsy photos Kono was pulling up now.

"Yeah; two really huge things. First, our latest casualty is a female with zero known history of an alternative lifestyle. Chin's interviewing her friends and it's holding up. Our killer is desperate, daring or both - this one is a stranger attack.”

"Oh, hell," Danny handed her back the paperwork. "The second huge thing? Tell me it's better news than that?"

"Sure is. He didn't scrub the scene so well. Might have heard something and panicked, who knows? But he got sloppy and we got saliva traces from the bite wounds. They're cross checking the DNA bank now."

"That is huge!" 

Danny watched Kono head to her office, and waited until she was out of earshot.

"Hey. Are you okay? Steve?"

"Yeah," Steve unfroze, running a hand over his hair, giving Danny a rueful little smile. "Sorry. This case is... starting to get to me.”

"I'd be surprised if it didn't," Danny walked his way, wanted to reach out and run a hand over his arm but thought better of it, went for eye contact instead and Steve gave it back to him. "Honestly, I thought it would have before now with what you went through."

"I wonder sometimes, you know, what I might have subjected others to by not reporting him. Wonder if he might have gotten braver. If maybe he's ruined more lives."

"Your life isn't ruined," Danny said and Steve nodded but the smile drained from his face.

"Might be when you get to know me more. If you decide I'm too busted for your taste."

"What are you talking about? Tell me," Steve didn't respond except to walk into his own office and Danny followed. "So you had a bad experience and you let it control you for a while. You're not the first person to ever..."

"I went back to him," Steve said, sitting behind his desk, barely able to meet Danny's eyes. "A few weeks after ... what happened, I went back to him. And no, he never hurt me as badly as he did that night but I could tell he had it in him. That it wasn’t an accident at all..and I still stayed with him. For almost a year."

"Jesus, Steve, why would you..."

"Because I was … because my heart was involved."

"You loved him?"

"Thought so. I don't know. It's been an empty word to me for a long time."

"You don't think he could possibly be our perp, right? That's not why you're upset, is it?"

"No. He left the same time I went away to the academy. His parents are gone, and he has no reason to come back to Hawaii. I did web searches over the years, to see if anything came up but... he has a common first and last name. Doesn't mean there’s nothing to find."

"Why haven't you used any of our resources?”

"First job I've ever had where I could dig into someone's records to that degree, Danny. I'm not sure it wouldn’t be an abuse of power."

"Well, you don't have any way to know he's not involved in this. Right? So if I were to come back from lunch and there were, say, a piece of paper on my desk with a name and any personal data you have on him…it'd only make sense for me to do some digging. To rule it out.”

"You'd do that?"

"Sure, I would." Danny had been in the doorway, came in now and pulled up a chair opposite him. "Steve, are you sorry, at all, that we've gone where we have? It was my idea. If you want to be buddies with vanilla benefits again I would so underst...."

"No!" Steve almost shouted, then sat back, looking embarrassed. "Sorry. This case stirring up the past, and what happened with us the other week… _hell_ , Danny. I've been telling myself you’re gonna walk on me."

"Not going anywhere unless you tell me to," Danny smiled at the relief in Steve's eyes, how he sank a bit at the words. "Steve, is… uh.. your heart involved? Now? With me?”

You might have thought Danny had thrown something at his head, the way Steve flinched, looked anywhere but him before giving in and meeting his eyes again.

“Yeah,” he said, and Danny could breathe again. “It is. I’m sorry. I know it’s not what you signed up for, and I can keep it in check, I…

“Stop,” Danny said. “You don’t have to. Keep anything in check.”

“Yeah? Since when?”

“Last night. When I couldn’t find anyone who could get me to stop thinking about you.”

Steve’s eyes- the realization of all the words suggested- Danny found he had to look away. 

Steve was about to say something back when Kono burst in.

“A match!” she was breathless, and obviously not from the very short run across the room. “We got a DNA match. And, on an entirely unrelated and coincidental note…our perp is on the phone. He knows how long he has until we can trace the call and he wants to talk to you.”

Danny saw Steve shaking his head.

“He wants to talk to me, why?”

“Because… he says he knows you, boss.”


	7. Too Late...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry so slow with the chapters lately. August has proven very demanding. Two more left in this story!

“This is McGarrett,” Steve and Danny hit the media table at the same moment, joining Chin and Kono. “Who’s this?”

The snicker they got back rolled out slow and heavy from the speakers, and it was beyond creepy. They saw Kono flinch from the sound of it. 

“Only one of many for you I’m sure, beautiful,” the disembodied voice trilled back. “As in very. Many.”

Steve’s eyes went to Danny and he signaled ‘no’ with his eyes. He knew they’d both wondered if by some twisted coincidence it would be him.

Danny acknowledged the look, his head barely moving as he nodded.

“I recognized you in the news reports,” the voice went on. “You were mostly face down when we were together, but still…so hard to forget.”

“You’re calling us. That tells me you know this is almost over,” Steve ignored his words and took the direct route. “Why don’t you turn yourself in? Save us all the…”

“I want to say they only had it coming to them,” the voice cut in. “Even the girl. You’ll figure it out, the whys and wherefores of my argument. You’re a sharp lot.”

Chin and Danny’s eyes met as they wordlessly noted the voice, its accent and phrasing.

“ _No one_ deserves what you did to them,” Steve said. “I think you know that’s true. Why else would you call and try to justify…”

“ _You_ deserve it, too.” The words were silky and…hungry and Chin turned away from the table like he knew what was coming and wished he could stop it for Steve’s sake. “Twisted little subbies deserve whatever they get. For luring us, appealing to our _needs_. You’re lucky I took pit….”

“Don’t put your sickness on others,” Danny said it in a very even tone but it came out hard, just short of a bark, and the voice on the other end drew in a sharp breath. 

“Well. That’s no subbie, is it?” 

They all could hear the caller moving the phone around. This was almost over. 

“Whatever you’re going through,” Steve tried another tact. “Whatever’s made you feel like people deserve this, has killing them given you any…”

“One more,” The caller sighed it, like a promise he was enjoying contemplating. “And I’ll stop. One more will make it better. And then, I will stop. For now.”

There was a click and silence.

“Did we get...”

“Eight seconds short,” Chin shook his head. “He knew exactly how long he had ‘til the trace took. I might get something from the data. Let me see.”

Steve nodded, eyes on the floor.

“I’ll uh… I’ll be….” 

He didn’t finish the thought, went back to his office and Danny started his way but Kono waved him off.

“Let me,” she said. “We’re working this, Steve and me. Right?”

Danny stopped and then started that way again.

“Let her go, Danny,” Chin stopped him. “He needs to know we’re all on his side. She’ll take care of it.”

~~*~~

“Did you hear anything?” Steve asked, already sitting behind his desk as Kono walked in. “Atmospheric noise? Highway sounds, surf, air conditioner rattle? ‘Cause I didn’t. It’s like he was sanitizing the background, maybe…”

“I feel like such an idiot,” Kono said.

“You do?” Steve huffed. 

“I made jokes. Called him ‘the killer with a kink.’ I was glib, and I’m sorry. That was so rude…”

“Kono, no one who spends more than ten minutes with you would ever think your heart was anywhere but in the right place. Okay?”

“Back at you, boss,” she sat opposite him, smiling as his face relaxed at the words.

“I see what you did there.” Steve said and Kono nodded.

“We’ll get him,” she said. “He’ll screw up, tip his hand and we’ll find him. I promise.”

Kono _had_ heard something on the phone – the faint traces of a slack guitar song playing, instrumentals only, and tantalizingly brief. They played the hell out of it, were pretty sure it was canned music – maybe over a restaurant or resort loudspeaker. Then Chin hit silver, if not gold, with the phone records; could confirm the call was placed from Maui and not Oahu. 

They were only the beginnings of an outline to the jigsaw puzzle, but it was more than they’d had before.

~~*~~

“Up for me, D. Hands and knees. Now.” 

Steve helped him turn over, Danny the sex-drunk one this time after a long, slow twist in the sheets, Steve’s mouth on him from head to cock to balls and back. 

He watched Danny’s head drop, mouth falling open as he dug three fingers right back inside him, his hard-on wet against one of Danny’s ass cheeks.

“Ready for me?”

The only response was Danny sinking to his elbows, and a groan he didn’t seem to know he was making.

_He’d shown up on Steve’s doorstep at dawn, the moment the ten days had elapsed._

_“Sure you want me?” Steve leaned on the doorjamb. “I draw abusers and freaks.”_

_“Don’t,” Danny walked past him into the house. “Not letting you tell yourself you don’t deserve to be happy. You are happy with me. Right?”_

_Steve had answered the question by pulling Danny in and holding him, silent._

“Ummmm, yeah…. like that but slow… c’mon, slow down…” Steve whispered encouragement in his ear, holding Danny’s hips as he fucked him, setting a pace. “Give me time to make this good for you.”

Danny made a long, heavy sound of acknowledgement and sensory-overload, sinking into the pillows he’d gotten his arms around. 

“Yeah, you love it though, don’t you?”

_“I missed you, too,” Danny had let one hand run over Steve’s back, his ass, as the other pulled him in for a slow, open kiss right there in the hallway. “Couldn’t wait for tonight. Want you right now, and I want you to top. Want you to fuck me, okay?”_

_“Why?”_

_“Because it’s what your dom thinks you need. And because if I’m ever going to bottom it’ll be with you and…”_

_“Woah… what?”_

Steve found a rhythm, kept them there for a while, then searched for the angle that would made Danny seize and jump and start fucking him harder, randomly, and yeah, there it was and… oh…God....

“Jesus, Ste _eev_ e… ah, fu _uuck_ … ahhhhhhh….”

He’d gotten a hand on him just in time, pumped Danny through it for both of them and stayed there, in him and over him for a few seconds extra so he could feel every last, involuntary squeeze.

“I have plans for you,” Danny said before sinking into sleep, and Steve felt every word all through his loose, content body.

It was like he’d read his mind, and knew that as good as this was - as much as he'd needed it - he couldn’t wait to go wherever Danny would take him next.

~~*~~

The decisions about what had to happen next to track their killer fell into place that day: Steve and Kono would head for Maui, stay there for the time being to quiz every business until the music was identified.

“If they have closed circuit video,” Kono had pointed out “and we get there before they roll over it again… who knows? Maybe it captured faces, cars, a license plate…”

Danny and Chin would stay at base and help trace leads, wait for another call, look for other angles to try.

“Wait,” Steve stopped Danny and turned his back to where Kono was walking toward the chopper that would fly them to Maui. 

“What’s up?”

“I left two names on your desk. The first one… it’s his. The second is someone I met the day before I met you. I don’t think it’s possible- he was too… decent. But the accent matches so we need to rule it out.”

“Got it,” Danny ran a hand over his arm. “I’ll call you with answers, okay?”

“What’s Kono up to?” Steve gestured behind him and Danny looked over, confused.

“Chin’s helping her into the…”

Steve reached in and kissed him twice – once fast, and again more deliberately, deeply and Danny opened up to it, leaning into him, letting Steve drive this.

“Be _careful_ ,” Danny said softly when he surfaced, giving him a little push.

Steve smiled at the double meaning as he walked to the ‘copter.


	8. Wish You Were Here....

“Hey, babe. How’s your morning?” Danny held his office phone to his shoulder with his ear, flipping through files and waiting for his computer to boot up. 

“Okay. We hit some more places early. I’m back in the room now,” Steve said. “Did you know there are nearly 700 restaurants on Maui?”

“I did _not_ , Mr. Trivia. Thank you for that barely useful piece of inf…”

“Smart ass,” Steve cut him off with a smile in his voice. “Hey, D, found the toy you sent with me. Nice job sliding it in my suitcase.”

“You like?” Danny abandoned the files in favor of listening closely to Steve’s voice. 

“I uhn… guess I can’t say yet. To be honest I was underwhelmed with the, _umm_... girth of it. Then I realized that’s not the point.”

“Exactly. The _point_ of it against your prostate, vibrating at a hundred miles an hour; _that_ would be the point.”

“Rather have you there at four miles an hour.”

“That’s sweet. Really. But proof you’ve never tried one, ‘cause babe nothing shakes a body apart like that thing does.”

“We’ll see…” Steve sounded unconvinced. “Not sure when I’ll be in the right mindset.”

“I know,” Danny wanted to say he’d heard it the last couple of days, how worn down Steve sounded, but he kept it to himself. “My gut says there’s a breakthrough coming.”

“Hope you’re right.”

“If you do get the urge to play, call me. Whenever. Naked with your earpiece on and both hands free and do _not_ start without me. Okay, gorgeous?”

“Yeah. Understood. I will.”

The words came out in Steve’s heavy, needier pitch and the thought of him sliding into gear a little from that one sweetly delivered order made Danny bite his lip.

~~*~~

“Steve, wait.” Kono stopped, an ear cocked toward the restaurant door.

“Yeah?” Steve heard it now- the music that was playing. 

The place was huge, an old house with a wraparound porch full of tables with people enjoying a leisurely lunch.

“That’s _it_ ,” Kono pointed toward the speakers, grinning. She scanned the ceiling for security cameras and spotted several, most aimed at the porch with one focused on the big back yard that was an unpaved parking lot. “It’s the music I heard in the background when our perp called.”

“Maybe you’ve got a better ear than me,” Steve nodded at the waitress walking their way. “It’s slack guitar, yeah, but does it sound exactly like…”

“Can I get you a table?” 

“No, thanks,” Kono said as they discreetly flashed their badges. “But we need to speak with the manager.”

~~*~~

 

“Where are you?” Danny hadn't even said hello.

“A restaurant off Hana Highway near H31,” Steve stepped a few more yards from the manager’s office doorway, glancing back at where Kono was sitting, talking with him. “We think we found it – the place the call was made. They keep security tapes, and they’re digging for that day’s…”

“Is there somewhere you can have some privacy? Maybe sit down?”

“Why?” Steve looked up and down the hallway and there was, indeed, a bench. It seemed unnecessary, but he sat. “Just tell me. I’ll be okay, whatever it is.”

“The man you hooked up with the day before we met? He checks out fine.”

“Good. _And?_ I’m sure you didn’t call to tell me...”

“You said he had a blended accent. Some English and Australian? Like our caller.”

“Yeah, that’s why I thought we should make sure….”

“’Cause Steve, I found him. The other him. From way back.”

Steve found himself sitting forward, elbows on knees, eyes going toward the office where he was glad to hear Kono and the manager still talking with each other. He wasn’t clear on how this all went together, yet.

“He married a Brit twelve years ago,” Danny went on. “Worked there for some time, with a private security firm as armed muscle for hire. Then they sent him to Australia to manage their place in Sydney.”

“Okay, so… sure, people pick up accents. But you don’t forget someone’s _voice_.”

“I don’t know, babe, people don’t change a whole hell of a lot from thirty to sixty but they do from seventeen to thirty. Do you sound like you did at seventeen?”

“He’s here, isn’t he?”

“Yes. That would be the other thing. He came to run his firm’s new branches in Maui and Oahu. He’s been here three months. Since a week before the first murder.”

~~*~~

The restaurant offered them a meal while the surveillance tapes from the date of the phone call were being hunted up, and the two of them had the porch almost to themselves now. Steve told Kono some of the facts of his past - enough to supplement what they’d all heard on the phone that day without going into the most personal of the details.

“Did I tell you what Danny found out about vic number three?” Steve asked.

Steve stared at the photo Danny had texted them both. It was an employee badge photo of a face he thought he’d never see again. He looked haunted by it.

Kono shook her head, glancing briefly at it, too. It was the face of a man who clearly used to be handsome, but now looked hard, weathered, not at all like anyone she could imagine Steve having anything to do with. 

“She was a domestic violence survivor who ran a shelter. She’d gone back to her abuser more than once before she got free. It was in the news recently, the shelter. It’s probably why he picked her; judging a complete stranger.”

“Hey, here’s a thought,” Kono spun her water glass. “Maybe you should fly back and …swap places with Danny? Let him run the search here and…”

“Can’t.” Steve set the phone down. “I messed up half my life ago, Kono, not reporting him. I have to be here to…”

“Maybe Danny should join us, then,” she wasn’t sure when she’d ever seen him this miserable, or that she had any way to shake him out of that mode herself. “I’m sure it’d be… a comfort for you, right?”

There had never been an official discussion about he and Danny among the four of them and apparently there wouldn’t need to be. Steve relaxed at her words but shook his head.

“No. There’s no logistical reason to. And I don’t want this to affect…anything. You know?”

“Don’t worry, boss,” Kono reached to take his hand and squeeze it and got the first smile all day out of him. “We’ll find him. And if he did this, we’ll put him away for good.”

~~*~~

“ _Danny_ ….” 

Steve’s voice in his ear, tight and heavy.

“Wha..what? What’s wrong?” 

Danny was on his feet and flinging clothes out of his closet with his phone in one hand before he even knew he was up. Then he dropped them on the floor and fell back into bed as it hit him: Dressing super fast would be less than zip in terms of helpfulness if Steve were in danger an island away. And, Steve was not in danger-- he was in heat.

“Holy … crap,” Danny’s free hand went to his too-rapidly-hardening dick, his heart pounding from one flavor of adrenaline closely followed by another.

It had been intense enough early in the day, when it was all theories, but then the security footage had shown it: _Him_ at the restaurant, smart enough to keep his profile to the camera while he ate, but not sharp enough to note the parking lot cam. They got a clear look at his face, his plates, and then worked hard into the night to try to track him. HPD was doing everything it could to make sure he didn’t get away by boat or by air - if he was still here. 

They’d only given up around midnight, and the strain in Steve’s voice the last time they talked? Danny kicked himself for not going with his gut and just flying over there.

“Sorry,” the word caught in Steve’s throat and came out as two shaky syllables and Danny hissed, stroking himself, noted the time on his clock: five a.m.

“You started without me.”

“Not much. I ran it over my cock, behind my balls and I lubed up. That’s all, I swear. Hey... _Danny_ …”

“Yeah, babe, I’m here.”

“I was wrong. This thing is… _fuck_ I’m not going to last very long once it’s in me.”

“Oh… yes. You will.” 

Danny said it sternly and heard Steve make a sound like he guessed that was coming.

“Tell me. The other night you said you have plans for me. Tell me about them. Please?”

“Like a dirty bedtime story?”

“ _Danny_ …”

“Okay, but I need you to get yourself as close as possible without coming. Put it on medium and stroke yourself with it some more. Maybe press it in, but just a touch, okay? And fair warning: I’m going to want at least one more trip up and back down from you before I say ‘go’. Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. Danny heard some doubt in his voice, and the soft buzzing of the toy as Steve turned it back on.

“So, I saw something at the club I want to try. This dom had the playroom window open and his sub’s arms were bound really high behind his back, with a soft, cotton rope. It was almost …woven around them, tied so perfectly and fastened to a hook on his collar. He was not moving those arms an inch, no _way_ ….

He heard Steve swallowing a gasp, and a couple of soft grunts.

“Let it out for me…. c’mon, let me hear you.”

“More… _please_ …” 

“He had a spreader bar between his feet, and the dom had him standing while he worked him over with a flogger. I want to change it up; have you on the bed, face down and ass up, legs wide – kind of a frog pose, you know? I’ll work you with the paddle, get you all blissed out. You can take that from me now, right baby?”

“Yes, fuuuck… I can. Want that so much…”

“And instead of a flogger, I’m getting a crop. Simple; a leather loop for a striker. It’ll be a nice contrast, the way it’ll snap on your skin, such a sweet, bright hurt. I’ll slap it all over your thighs, right on your sweet little hole, your cock… gonna make you come from it, just like I promised, make you come all over yourself from the ache…”

Steve had gone from panting to a low growl that said he was close but fighting it off. Danny stopped to listen to Steve venting his pleasure and his frustration and it was so damn hot, the long groan of disappointment, almost a shout as he came back down. 

Danny didn’t have to ask him if he’d held on.

“So good for me, Steve. You always give it everything, don’t you? Wish I were there to hold you down and put that thing to you….”

“Stop,” It was only one word, but it had so much begging in it that Danny gave him half a minute to cool down, stroking himself in the meantime, letting Steve hear him getting excited, too.

“Gonna come for you this time,” Danny gave him fair warning, started pushing up into his own fist, trying to get in synch with him, knowing Steve wouldn’t be able to go at it as long for round two. “Now. C’mon… fuck yourself with it still off. Then find the sweet spot and turn it on. High, okay? Ride it as long as you can, Steve, go, now, c’mon…”

They were both wordless after that, except for softly sworn ‘fucks’ and curses, and Danny moaning long and deep when the strokes he was giving himself turned wet and slick.

That’s what seemed to set Steve off, because now he was almost sobbing, the tight catches in his voice telling Danny he was twisting, practically thrashing, the quivering prod so deep in him that the humming sound was gone.

“That’s it, yeah, take it… _take it_ … like it’s my hand on it… more, more, more…” Danny urged him on as long as he could then let it slam through him, shouting, up on one elbow as he came and when he could hear and think straight again, Steve was so quiet he thought maybe it was all over.

Then he heard one soft sound, so full of ache it sent a shiver through him.

“Steve?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you hold on like that without a cock ring on?”

“Yes.” He sounded like he needed to come so fucking bad but was past the point of being sure he could even stand it.

“Son of a… _wow_. I am going to swallow you down for that, I swear…”

“Holding you to it.”

“Okay. Now. Come for me, now. And I want it so loud someone calls security.”

Steve gave him that and some more and Danny wished he could see it, him paralyzed with sensation, shaking apart just as hard as if Danny was in the room pulling it out of him with his own hands.

“God, I wish I’d flown over there today,” Danny said when Steve had been silent a while.

“It’ll be over soon,” Steve said, still catching his breath, and Danny smiled him being the one offering reassurances.

“Want me to talk in your ear until you fall asleep?”

“Yeah,” Steve sounded nearly there already. “Please. Another dirty bedtime story?”

Danny wasn’t even sure which one of them did fall asleep first, but when he woke up his phone was on the floor, the call disconnected and the sun rising. 

~~*~~

“We should drop by the airport and see how it’s going there,” Kono said as they walked to the car in the hotel parking lot. 

It wasn’t much after dawn, but neither of them could sleep anyway.

“Can’t hurt,” Steve looked one more time for any text messages, then pulled out his keys and put away his phone. “Maybe the pier, too.”

He hadn’t shown up at work the next morning, of course, their subject. It was all over the news, both that the transit and highway checkpoints were tied to the serial killer and a likely sign that there was a name, a face to be on the lookout for though authorities were not releasing it yet. 

“I almost feel like we should be looking somewhere he wouldn’t be, you know?” Kono said, walking in front of Steve, about to loop around their rental car to the passenger’s side. “Like maybe the shooting ranges some of the tourists come here for. He’d be into target practice in his field, right?”

“Or you could just look up,” a deep, male voice that was not Steve’s said and they froze.

“David,” Steve whispered it. Kono looked over, and had never seen him so drained of color.

She’d never wanted to take someone out at the knees that badly before, and she would have absolutely drawn her weapon and done it if he weren’t already aiming a gun at her forehead from about nine yards away.

“Hiya, Mick,” he smiled at Steve, and his voice was as chill as if they were headed for a food truck to grab breakfast together. “How about you cuff your pretty friend here and stuff her in the trunk or I kill her and you right here and dump you off a cliff into the ocean?”

“Do you believe this will help?” Steve asked it, had to try, but he wasn’t on solid enough ground to not move slowly toward Kono, hands out, turning his back to show the cuffs in his pocket before he pulled them out with one finger.

“Probably not. Doesn’t mean I’m delivering myself to you on a platter, though. And since the irony of it being you who’s taking me down is just … _too_ fucking perfect… I think I’ll have some fun with you both. Take you down with me. Why the hell not, right? What, exactly, do I have to lose?”

Kono glared at him as Steve cuffed her, saw him shake his head at the two, quick clicking sounds as he did.

“Uh-uh, Steve,” he said. “Tighter. Believe me… I know what cuffs sound like when they’re closing over one’s wrists just right.”

“I’m so sorry…” he whispered near her ear. “I promise I’ll figure it…”

Steve never got the last word in as a shot rang, the bullet striking the ground a foot and a half to Kono’s right.

“Do not screw with me, Mick. Empty her pockets, very slowly. Then put her in the trunk and lay stomach down – arms behind you. And don’t test my goddamned reflexes, either,” Kono’s heart dropped at the leer on his face. “’Cause you know… I’m a hell of a match for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story began as part of the summer Bingo on the 1_million_words comm. Each chapter title is a prompt from the bingo. Thanks to [Heffermonkey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/heffermonkey/pseuds/heffermonkey) for organizing it and for the awesome banner.
> 
>  


	9. Clean

Kono knew to roll gently, rather than twist or shimmy as she maneuvered around the trunk. Not that she expected Steve or their kidnapper to notice; it felt like they were on a highway, moving at a good clip but, _oh,_ it wouldn’t be pretty if that maniac realized she was up to something.

She’d spotted her best hope right before the hatch closed and trapped her in stifling darkness: A shopping bag, thick paper with handles made of cloth -- wire inside to give each one a consistent shape. It was so perfect; she couldn’t believe he hadn’t grabbed it. If she could pull one handle loose … 

“ _Yesss_ ….” Kono got her fingers on the bag, flipped it around and tugged. The wire picked her finger when it came apart, made her jump, but she found the fabric and started twisting it all into a fine point.

She listened as she worked, catching traces of Steve’s voice – calm, his best negotiating tone. She’d started trying to jam the end of the bag handle into the keyhole on the cuffs when she heard it; Steve yelling, ‘no!’ followed by a distressed shout that was half groan and silence. 

It had made her jump, let go of the bag. Now she found it again and realized the handle tip was still a fraction of an inch too wide to insert into the slot.

“Damn it,” she squeezed her eyes tight, controlling her breathing, pushing back fear and anger. “Don’t let that be as bad as it sounded.” 

She’d only been working at it a few more minutes when the car stopped.

The driver’s side door flew open and slammed, and Kono hoped against hope he wasn’t coming straight for her.

~~*~~

“Got a better fix on it yet?” Danny turned to ask Chin.

HPD was flying them to Maui. Chin was behind him in the ‘copter, an officer next to him. His eyes were pouring intently over a tablet screen as he shook his head. 

“No. It’s not as precise as cell phone GPS. Too bad he was smart enough to turn all theirs off, but… I’m still scanning for them in case."

All they had to work with was a faint broadcast signal from the Bluetooth in Kono’s telephone ear piece. Chin’s sharp thinking and state law requiring every item bought for official use be logged, with serial number, had helped them find its footprint. That only narrowed it down to a few hundred thousand acres of undeveloped land, private homes and not much else somewhere in Kipahulu Forest reserve.

“Chin… how ‘bout this? There’s a horse ranch on the side of the park near Route 31. Owner retired last month and the kids wanted out, so they shut it down.”

“Abandoned barns; shelter already in place, seclusion, no reason for anyone to come by daily. Sounds like a possibility. How did you hear about it?”

“Grace’s friend at school is one of the grandkids. She goes there every vacation and she’s already dreading the pony withdrawl.”

“Think our perp would know about it?”

“Who knows? Seems like a place to start.”

Danny leaned left to talk with the pilot and then sat back, face strained. 

“We’ll find them, Danny,” Chin clapped a hand on his shoulder and he tried to rearrange his expression, to suggest that it had helped, but he knew Chin wasn’t fooled.

“Hey, I’m just glad we went with our instincts and started searching the minute we couldn’t raise them on their phones. If we’d assumed the best and waited….”

They were both doing the math: It had been over an hour since they’d tried to call them. Who knew exactly when they’d been taken?

~~*~~

 _“Where is she?_ ” 

Steve heard his own voice asking; a fuzzy rasp, drugged and sinking deeper. He remembered trying to talk David down, and then – out of nowhere- a needle to the neck. 

He never stopped driving to stab him with it.

Being dragged was a blur; chained to the upper bar of an animal stall, the smell of dung and hay and wood still strong. He bit back a sound as his arms hyper-extended over his head. 

“Your friend? She’s baking in the car. Dead or dying…”

His shirt was slashed away with a knife; hands at his belt, pants down to expose his lower back. Best place for a buggy whip to do damage; kidneys, liver, lungs; the nightmare of half his life playing out.

“Maybe when I get bored with you I’ll drag what’s left of her in here. Give you a last look.”

Steve’s head turned, eyes fighting to focus - left, right, up. One door. Rafters. No other way in… or out.

 _“Why?_ ” 

“You want meaning? There is none. To anything. But if you need something… how bout me making up for my mistake? I should have killed you seventeen years ago, you wouldn’t be around today to go with a hunch, would you, you intuitive _fucker_?”

Hands gripped his head, a thick strap lacing around the back of his skull and fastened to the bars on either side. It effectively pinned him down so he couldn’t move from the shoulders up, couldn’t see except a sliver to his left.

“No way to fix _your_ big, life mistake, right Mick? Can’t undo _me_ , can’t even get me out of your head. Jaay-sus, the look on your face in that parking lot. And here I went and _forgot_ you. Barely recognized you in the news reports about the murders… just that needy mumble.”

_“Your wife… your family…”_

“Oh, you can do better than that….” A hand on his hip, a gun cradled in it, pressing into his skin to make the point. The other raised to his left to show the whip off a little first. “Plead for _yourself_. That won’t help, either, but…. I’ll enjoy listening to it.”

~~*~~

_“Drop them. Both of them. You do, you live. Seriously, put ‘em down,‘cause If you move another inch…”_

Danny’s voice. It registers despite the burning ache racking his sweat-soaked, bruised and bleeding body. He can see Chin, barely, gun drawn out of the far corner of his limited vision. He can picture Danny’s stance. 

He feels himself shivering randomly, uncontrollably and it’d be humiliating, Chin seeing him like this if he had the capacity to feel anything but waves of pain and relief. 

“I’ve been shot more than once before, mate. I’ll take at least one of you with me….”

A gunshot, and what air is in Steve’s lungs leaves it in a strangled sigh. Please no, _please_ …

Above. _That_ registers, a second later. One shot. From above.

Danny’s with him, wrapped around him, half climbing the stall in his hurry to get Steve’s hands, his arms free. Then Chin and Danny are lowering him, catching him as he falls. 

When his back reaches the ground he sees David lying feet away, bleeding from the head. 

“Cuz,” Chin’s got Steve half in his lap and is grinning up at the rafters. “ _Timing_ , girl! Damn… you have it!”

“ _Hey_ ,” Steve hears Danny’s harsh shout, turns his head to see him standing over a slowly twisting David, a foot drawing back and aiming for his ribs. “How about _this_?”

Direct kick. 

“You got taken _out_ …”

Kick. 

“By a skinny… little… lady... who had _one_ clean shot. Sweet, huh? She kicked your _ass_ , you dirt-fucking-bag.”

If the HPD officers behind them saw that happen… they didn’t see it. 

~~*~~

“I’m leaving this place. Now.”

Danny had stopped in the doorway, fighting back a smile at the sight of Steve sitting up tall, an argumentative look on his face and his legs over the side of the hospital bed. 

The doctor who treated him had optimistically assigned him a room for the night once he was out of urgent care.

“Sure, I get it. You’ve got two cracked ribs and pretty severe contusions on your back. Not to mention you were dosed with enough tranquilizers to knock a body into next week. So it makes perfect sense you’d want to spend the very same night as that horrible day in a _hotel_ room instead of the _hospital_. ‘Cause they’re so very _different_ …”

“Danny…”

One word, but it said so much; _‘I’m ripped apart inside, embarrassed, he… lived, there’s going to be a trial and I … need normal or something like it. Now.”_

“I think they’ll let you check out if you have someone with you tonight. You do…want, uh… me with you. Right?”

“Hell, yeah…” Steve looked alarmed at the suggestion of anything else.

“Good. I thought maybe you’d… I don’t know. Retreat?”

“No way. Not letting him damage another minute of my life.”

“Even better. Hell… I was so freaking terrified for you,” Danny heard himself admitting. “And not to sound greedy but… I can’t live in the desert again. Not after finding you. I can’t.”

He’d never told Steve that story, but Steve clearly got it – nodding hard, looking away as his eyes squinted, dampening.

Now they were in the shower in Steve’s hotel room, Danny leaning back against the wall by the faucets watching him gingerly step in. Steve stayed back far enough to keep the bandages on his back dry but let the extra hot water run down his head, his face, his chest and … yeah, they had tended to his bloody, sweat-basted state of being in the hospital, but this was a different world of relief.

Danny watched him sigh deeply, the way his eyes opened slowly, barely when he felt a soapy washcloth running over him. 

“I can do that…”

“Or you can let me,” Danny normally would have batted his hand away, but instead he lifted it gently, dropped it at Steve’s side.

“Or… yeah, I can do that.” 

Steve put his hands on Danny’s hips and leaned into it, letting him tend to him, and Danny could feel it- the knots still in his muscles, the stress melting a bit, maybe, but still there.

“How about we let your pores open some more, then I dry you off,” he ducked behind Steve to wash the parts that were not bandaged. “We get half a dozen pillows strategically placed around you and I’ll slide down and blow you just right; not to hard, nothing teasing just…”

Steve stopped him with a big, open kiss that was a ‘yes’ and then Danny gave him just what he’d promised. Steve couldn’t move as much as he was used to as Danny sucked him, and when he came he was all the more vocal for it – moaning and letting loose with soft, needy puppy sounds. 

To hear him feeling that good after feeling that bad was all the pleasure Danny needed.

 

~~*~~

“Hey, babe, I’m here…” Danny heard sounds from the kitchen and headed that way. “Not cooking, are you?”

“No, getting some water,” Steve was, indeed, by the sink. 

“Great. I thought maybe dinner out tonight?”

It had been ten days since that day, and Steve had been surprisingly compliant about staying home to recuperate. That was pretty clearly on the verge of ending, though; he’d been antsy the last two days, up earlier and asleep later, wanting it a touch rougher in bed. 

“Sure,” Steve seemed to think about it. “That could be good. What’s this?”

Danny flipped the grey box with the small, tasteful logo on one side around in his hands. 

“A present, maybe.”

Steve walked by, grinning, never breaking stride as he wrested the box and kept going. 

“You don’t have to say you’re up for it if you’re not. It’s…uh…I know we said no 24/7, but I thought we might want to go longer form on a Saturday here or there?”

Steve was on the couch, flipping away the tissue paper and lifting it from the box; a wide, soft, leather collar with a gold plate along the front and a big, gold ‘O’ ring.

“Danny, this is….”

“Too soon?”

“Really beautiful.” 

“I know it’s barely been a week. But last night it felt like... maybe you want it. Maybe you’re ready?”

“Let’s order in,” Steve was on his feet, only taking his eyes off it long enough to kiss him. “You call the new Thai place and lock up. I’ll go get naked, put this on and assume the position. We can play a while before the food shows up.”

“Brilliant Plan B.”

“One condition, though.”

“Sure,” Danny shook his head. “Get me revved, and there’s a condition. Okay, what?”

“No one else, from now on. I mean… if you really want to play with some partners I’m up for that, but we’re both in the room every time.”

“Like a relationship? You want to be ‘us,’ and ‘those two’ and such?”

“Yeah. Deal?”

“Absofreakinglutely.”

“Okay, ‘Jersey,’ we’ll shake on it later,” Steve was halfway up the stairs in three leaps, then stopped. “Wait… how do you want me? When you come up?”

“Kneeling in the middle of our bed. Up high or sitting on your heels, whatever works for you.”

Steve was gone, then, and the smile never left Danny’s face as he shut off lights, grabbed four beers and an ice bucket and called the restaurant.

“Forty-five minutes. Perfect. Cash will be under the doormat - ring the bell and leave the food? Thanks…”

He was humming as he hit the stairs, inside and out. 

 

~~end~~


End file.
